Biffle powers to victory at Michigan as Hendrick teams falter

BROOKLYN, MI – JUNE 16: Greg Biffle, driver of the #16 3M/Give Kids a Smile Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 16, 2013 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by Geoff Burke/Getty Images)

Greg Biffle gave Ford its 1000th NASCAR Sprint Cup series win Sunday with a convincing performance at Michigan International Speedway. In a repeat of last Augusts race, problems from Jimmie Johnson helped Biffle to score his first win of 2013, the 19th of his career and his fourth at MIS.

Biffle took the lead from his Roush-Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards with fifty laps to go and never relinquished the point holding off a hard charging Johnson in the final ten laps. Johnson who led earlier and battled his way from as far back as 32nd, looked to be catching Biffle passing first Kevin Harvick in second and was closing on Biffle, but with two laps to go his Chevy scraped the wall exiting turn two after losing a left front tire. Johnson would end the day in 28th.

“it’s just a bummer.,” Johnson said. “We had a great race car. Our strategy was throwing some challenges at us today and we just struggled with maintaining track position. But we had a fast car and I could drive up through there and as soon as I’d get to first or second, a caution would come out and then something would happen again and we’d lose track position. But we had a great race car and I hate having that problem at the end. I had to run the car really hard to get through all those guys and must have worn through that right front tire with two or three (laps) to go, it went down going into Turn 1.”